Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to OpenACES

I'm certainly all for ACES moving forward!! Scott and I are currently modifiying ACES(3.4) (I'll use ACES 3.4 to designate ACES based on ACS 3.4) to create an extranet for HydroSki. We will probably have a new wimpy point package in a month or so, it would be nice to have a place to share it.

I think ACES has application well beyond educational communities. It is esencaily the next iteration of ACS 3.4 with an automated setup and all of the modules that are used separated out as packages. It is a usefull platform for rapid development for any system where the members are in multiple different groups and you want a flexible portal user interface.

While I was at AD I worked closely with Mike B on the intranet team. In a fully developed 4.0 there would be little need for a separate education system it would just be a specific configuration of intranet.

However, since 4.0 intranet and modules are not yet done in any form what we have in ACES 3.4 is probably the most complete ACS functionality. Yes there are lots of reasons to move to 4.0 but there are also a lot of sites that can be developed quickly using ACES3.4 as a base. I would like to see an ACES specific forum on openACS as well as a CVS repository for the 3.4 oracle version, SDM and a repository where we could post newly developed or tweeked packages.

Peter, I would love a demo, hopefully before we move to RI on May 15. Is your code opensource?